0000000000086204
AUTHOR
J. Palacio
Excess electronic recoil events in XENON1T
We report results from searches for new physics with low-energy electronic recoil data recorded with the XENON1T detector. With an exposure of 0.65 t-y and an unprecedentedly low background rate of $76\pm2$ events/(t y keV) between 1 and 30 keV, the data enables sensitive searches for solar axions, an enhanced neutrino magnetic moment, and bosonic dark matter. An excess over known backgrounds is observed at low energies and most prominent between 2 and 3 keV. The solar axion model has a 3.4$\sigma$ significance, and a 3D 90% confidence surface is reported for axion couplings to electrons, photons, and nucleons. This surface is inscribed in the cuboid defined by $g_{ae}<3.8 \times 10^{-12}$,…
Search for Coherent Elastic Scattering of Solar B8 Neutrinos in the XENON1T Dark Matter Experiment
We report on a search for nuclear recoil signals from solar $^8$B neutrinos elastically scattering off xenon nuclei in XENON1T data, lowering the energy threshold from 2.6 keV to 1.6 keV. We develop a variety of novel techniques to limit the resulting increase in backgrounds near the threshold. No significant $^8$B neutrino-like excess is found in an exposure of 0.6 t $\times$ y. For the first time, we use the non-detection of solar neutrinos to constrain the light yield from 1-2 keV nuclear recoils in liquid xenon, as well as non-standard neutrino-quark interactions. Finally, we improve upon world-leading constraints on dark matter-nucleus interactions for dark matter masses between 3 GeV/…
Search for inelastic scattering of WIMP dark matter in XENON1T
We report the results of a search for the inelastic scattering of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in the XENON1T dark matter experiment. Scattering off $^{129}$Xe is the most sensitive probe of inelastic WIMP interactions, with a signature of a 39.6 keV de-excitation photon detected simultaneously with the nuclear recoil. Using an exposure of 0.89 tonne-years, we find no evidence of inelastic WIMP scattering with a significance of more than 2$\sigma$. A profile-likelihood ratio analysis is used to set upper limits on the cross-section of WIMP-nucleus interactions. We exclude new parameter space for WIMPs heavier than 100 GeV/c${}^2$, with the strongest upper limit of $3.3 \time…
Light Dark Matter Search with Ionization Signals in XENON1T
We report constraints on light dark matter (DM) models using ionization signals in the XENON1T experiment. We mitigate backgrounds with strong event selections, rather than requiring a scintillation signal, leaving an effective exposure of (22±3) tonne day. Above ∼0.4 keVee, we observe <1 event/(tonne day keVee), which is more than 1000 times lower than in similar searches with other detectors. Despite observing a higher rate at lower energies, no DM or CEvNS detection may be claimed because we cannot model all of our backgrounds. We thus exclude new regions in the parameter spaces for DM-nucleus scattering for DM masses mχ within 3–6 GeV/c2, DM-electron scattering for mχ>30 MeV/c2, a…
Multiband variability studies and novel broadband SED modeling of Mrk 501 in 2009
Astronomy and astrophysics 603, A31 (2017). doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201629540
First Multi-wavelength Campaign on the Gamma-ray-loud Active Galaxy IC 310
The extragalactic VHE gamma-ray sky is rich in blazars. These are jetted active galactic nuclei viewed at a small angle to the line-of-sight. Only a handful of objects viewed at a larger angle are known so far to emit above 100 GeV. Multi-wavelength studies of such objects up to the highest energies provide new insights into the particle and radiation processes of active galactic nuclei. We report the results from the first multi-wavelength campaign observing the TeV detected nucleus of the active galaxy IC 310, whose jet is observed at a moderate viewing angle of 10 deg - 20 deg. The multi-instrument campaign was conducted between 2012 Nov. and 2013 Jan., and involved observations with MAG…
$^{222}$Rn emanation measurements for the XENON1T experiment
The selection of low-radioactive construction materials is of utmost importance for the success of low-energy rare event search experiments. Besides radioactive contaminants in the bulk, the emanation of radioactive radon atoms from material surfaces attains increasing relevance in the effort to further reduce the background of such experiments. In this work, we present the $^{222}$Rn emanation measurements performed for the XENON1T dark matter experiment. Together with the bulk impurity screening campaign, the results enabled us to select the radio-purest construction materials, targeting a $^{222}$Rn activity concentration of 10 $\mu$Bq/kg in 3.2 t of xenon. The knowledge of the distribut…
Search for Light Dark Matter Interactions Enhanced by the Migdal Effect or Bremsstrahlung in XENON1T.
Direct dark matter detection experiments based on a liquid xenon target are leading the search for dark matter particles with masses above ∼5 GeV/c2, but have limited sensitivity to lighter masses because of the small momentum transfer in dark matter-nucleus elastic scattering. However, there is an irreducible contribution from inelastic processes accompanying the elastic scattering, which leads to the excitation and ionization of the recoiling atom (the Migdal effect) or the emission of a bremsstrahlung photon. In this Letter, we report on a probe of low-mass dark matter with masses down to about 85 MeV/c2 by looking for electronic recoils induced by the Migdal effect and bremsstrahlung us…
Projected WIMP sensitivity of the XENONnT dark matter experiment
XENONnT is a dark matter direct detection experiment, utilizing 5.9 t of instrumented liquid xenon, located at the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. In this work, we predict the experimental background and project the sensitivity of XENONnT to the detection of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). The expected average differential background rate in the energy region of interest, corresponding to (1, 13) keV and (4, 50) keV for electronic and nuclear recoils, amounts to 12.3 ± 0.6 (keV t y)-1 and (2.2± 0.5)× 10−3 (keV t y)-1, respectively, in a 4 t fiducial mass. We compute unified confidence intervals using the profile construction method, in order to ensure proper coverage…
WIMP dark matter as radiative neutrino mass messenger
The minimal seesaw extension of the Standard SU(3)(c)circle times SU(2)(L)circle times U(1)(Y) Model requires two electroweak singlet fermions in order to accommodate the neutrino oscillation parameters at tree level. Here we consider a next to minimal extension where light neutrino masses are generated radiatively by two electroweak fermions: one singlet and one triplet under SU(2)(L). These should be odd under a parity symmetry and their mixing gives rise to a stable weakly interactive massive particle (WIMP) dark matter candidate. For mass in the GeV-TeV range, it reproduces the correct relic density, and provides an observable signal in nuclear recoil direct detection experiments. The f…